Team XRAY UK drivers Ben Cosgrove, Mark Gilliland and Robin Hammett were in attendance at the first round of the 200mm IC Foam Nationals last weekend. Tibshelf is a power hungry track where car handling is really tested with some very high speed sweeping corners and heavy braking zones.
This was the second meeting the team had been together at and confidence was high after some very successful testing so far. Saturday practice was limited due to local noise restrictions so we could only run engines from 11am to 5pm. The drivers were also limited to 7 minute practice slots which worked well with every body getting a practice.
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Saturday went well for the team as instantly the cars were balanced and carried very good corner speed. We tested the solid axle but preferred the front diff due to better turn in under braking. We tested damping and springs but ended up with what we had started with from Cotswolds Handy GP.
Saturday evening we had a technical debrief and discussed possible improvements to the chassis and tyre strategies for the finals and qualifying. We also checked over each others cars to make sure we all knew what we had changed and to spot any potential problems. All was ok.
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Sunday started at 10am with the first round of qualifying. There were 3 rounds in total with no lunch break. Rd1 saw mixed fortunes for the team with Ben making an error and losing a lot of time, Mark running out of fuel and Robin having a big crash with some crashed cars on the straight.
This meant that we had put all 3 cars in the top 15 with 2 in the top 10 at 10th (Ben) and 5th (Mark). We all discussed tyre strategy again and we all went for slightly different approaches. Robin had a 20 minute final so went more aggressive on the tyre choice. Mark went with the same as in qualifying and Ben went for harder.
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The final started with a problem for Ben with a glow plug issue which lost him about 12 laps in the first 10 minutes. Mark also had a couple of cuts on track so we were both left at the tail of the field. Both Ben and Mark had very good pace in the final and soon worked their way up to 6th and 7th respectively.
Overall we were very impressed with the performance of the chassis and consistent speed throughout the final. Robin was very unlucky this round and will be a force to be reckoned with at the next round at Mendip on the 22nd April. Mark and Ben will be absent at this round due to the first electric touring car nationals the same weekend.
